Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1710 Minting Technology Continued

Everyone expressed different views on the entire process and coin specifications.Some people suggested that the silver coins of this specification were too thick. In fact, the size of Yuan Datou is 39mm, and the thickness is 2.3mm. If it is minted with a diameter of 31mm, the thickness of the silver coin will become 3.64mm.And it can't blow at all-blowing and listening are important methods for folks to identify the authenticity of silver coins. If they are cast too thick, they will open the door for counterfeit coins.

他提议新银币的壹元规格改成每枚25g，厚度2.5mm，直径为35.2mm。好处的可以使得银币的尺度完全标准化：40枚一包就是10cm高度，重量正好是1kg。易于清点和包装。

The size of the tokens has also been adjusted accordingly.The metallurgical department proposed that there is no need to use electrolytic silver or copper for coinage.Pyrochemical silver and copper can also reach a purity of 99%. A small amount of impurities contained in pyrometallurgical smelting mainly hinder the electrical conductivity and have no effect on stamped coins.

Regarding the secondary currency, some elders suggested that the concept of a quarter of a dollar was not intuitive enough for the aborigines.I am afraid that it will cause misunderstanding in use. It is better to cast silver coins with two corners and one corner instead.

"Changing 25 points to 20 points is not a problem in terms of production, but we will lose a sum of seigniorage." Cheng Dongliang pondered.

"Where is it lost?"

“生产1枚25分和1枚20分在成本上是相差无几的，就算缩小尺寸和重量能减少一点成本，实际上省不了多少。等于我们每铸一枚20分就损失了5分钱的收益。同理我们也不能铸10分的硬币。”

"why?"

“差额太小了。从铸币的角度来说是亏本的。”程栋解释说10分和20分面值上只差一倍，且不说铸造成本的差异微乎其微，单就币材成本来说，2个10分硬币的成本反而高出1个20分的硬币。

In the period of the Republic of China, Guangdong issued a large number of silver cents, with face values ​​of 20 cents, 10 cents and 5 cents, but the so-called double cents were cast and circulated in large quantities. The latter two were not issued much and used less because of their high cost and easy wear and tear.

"If you blindly reduce the cost of coin materials, the quality of silver coins will be too poor. If the quality of silver coins is less than 5%, it will be meaningless to be honest."

"I think it's better to issue 10-cent copper coins. This way the cost is acceptable. Copper coins can be made of brass and mixed with a small amount of lead. The copper content can be controlled at 60%."

"The demand for tokens is staggering, how much copper is needed to meet the demand..."'

"We have issued banknotes of the same amount. We should issue less copper coins and more banknotes."

In terms of copper reserves alone, there are quite a few planning institutes. The almost abnormal collection of copper materials in the past few years has made the planning institutes store a considerable amount of copper materials.However, due to the needs of electricity, refrigeration, communications and some mechanical industries, copper cannot be said to be abundant.What's more, casting silver coins itself consumes a lot of copper.

"The memorandum also proposes electrolytic silver and electrolytic copper, and our production capacity is even more difficult to meet."

"If there are enough electric tubes now, I don't object to the widespread use of electrolytic silver and copper. After all, after electrolysis of non-ferrous metals, there will be many rare metals in the anode slime that we are usually difficult to obtain. But now our power gap is still very large. Yes, copper is not enough to satisfy the power industry..." The elders of the metallurgical department looked distressed.

Then another elder pointed out that there was no issuing agency on the coin, which seemed inappropriate.Although the name of the country and the issuing bank are generally not suppressed on modern coins, it seems that the corresponding mark should be added in this time and space.

"I have an opinion: right now SPQM doesn't mean Chinese people don't know what it means, even foreigners don't understand it. Spanish coins also have an abbreviation of mint. Even if our coins don't have a country name, at least they have An issuing bank. Let everyone know where the money is made in the future."

Wang Ruixiang suggested: "It's too wasteful to use carbide tools to carve molds every time. Our self-produced tools are not only low in output, but also poor in quality and have a very short lifespan. Can you see if this works: using hard alloy tools Carve copper with a high-quality alloy tool, make a master plate of coins, and electroform one time to make a mold corresponding to the yin and yang sides, and then just use this master plate for continuous electroforming. After all, chemical batteries and metals are easier to handle than alloy knives. "

Wang Luobin shook his head: "It takes a long time to use a mold. The cost of your technique is extremely high, the efficiency is extremely low, and the surface of the mold is too easy to break, especially when facing steel materials, the matrix of the punch die itself is easy to deform—— —Insufficient strength. Besides, if we want to engage in industry, we must pass the level of tool alloys. There is no need to go around, and the sooner the better. It doesn’t matter if you can’t do it well, try more, our current conditions are much better than before.”

After some discussion, it was finally decided to modify the coin specification to conform to the idea of ​​"standardization".Also add the issuing bank to the coin: Central Reserve Bank of the Senate.As for the coin materials used, it is no longer required to have electrolytic silver and copper.It is only stipulated that the coin material must be 99% pure.In addition, it was decided to change the original 25-cent denomination to 20-cent denomination. As for the 10-cent coin, it will not be minted for the time being, and only banknotes are currently issued.

"How long will it take to make a finished product?" Cheng Dong asked, seeing that a consensus had been reached.

"If you have all the equipment, you can finish the samples in two weeks. But it will take some time to adjust later. I think one month is enough." Liang Xin said, "I just don't know if the coins will be fully supplied."

"Don't worry about this." Cheng Dong said, "As soon as the new currency system is implemented, we will start to recast all the silver in our hands, and uniformly cast 99% silver bars, each 1KG. I just don't know how to make How big is the monthly production capacity of the coin factory."

"The design capability is to produce 4 coins of various kinds per day." Liang Xin said, "If we go all out to produce 8 coins per day, we can do it. It all depends on whether the coins are sufficient. This number is actually very low. Nanjing at the beginning of the 20th century The mint can produce 12 yuan Yuan Datou every day, and if we work overtime, the production capacity can be doubled."

"With a monthly output of 120 million pieces, with our silver inventory, we have to stop production for one month." Cheng Dong was secretly startled. All the silver inventory in the planning institute's warehouse was only 70 taels (37 grams) regardless of fineness.Even if it is re-smelted and added copper, zinc and other materials, it is one month's output.

120 million coins of various kinds, do you know if they can meet the circulation needs in the market?The currency reform of the Senate, to put it bluntly, is "abolishing the two and changing the yuan", which is a huge impact on the past standard currency of weighing silver + copper coins.He has no idea what kind of reaction there will be in the market in Guangdong, and whether there will be financial struggles such as "currency wars".

His particular concern was that someone would hoard silver dollars, or worse, that there would simply not be enough silver dollars minted to meet the needs of circulation.The amount of silver dollars that the Ministry of Finance can put into the market is limited.Although it can be replenished from the spoils of war, one cannot expect too much from the treasury of the government at all levels in Guangdong.As for tax revenue, it will only be available in summer.

The veterans of the Ministry of Finance are actually counting on "cracking down on local tyrants".But this income is completely unpredictable.

The meeting ended with Cheng Dong worried.After the meeting, the veterans of Jikou, headed by Liang Xin, immediately started making molds.

Considering that the Hong Kong factory lacks enough naturalized technicians, the equipment and materials are not as complete as Lingao.Therefore, the steel molds for several kinds of coins were made in Lingao, and then they were packed into special boxes and brought by Liang Xin to the Hong Kong Mint.

The Hong Kong Mint is located near Central. This new factory is temporarily in charge of Liang Xin, and will be handed over to the Ministry of Finance after it is officially put into operation.According to the establishment, the director of the Mint and the chief accountant are assigned by the Ministry of Finance's Currency Bureau.There are two departments of general affairs and production in the factory.The General Affairs Section has a general affairs room, a cashier room, a material warehouse, a coal warehouse, a coin warehouse and a calibration office.In addition, the Ministry of Finance hired petition police sent by the national police to guard the factory.The foundry department has a technical room, below which are various workshops for power, smelting, sheet rolling, stamping, polishing, pickling, mould, weighing, and printing.Although the scale of each workshop is not large, it can also be called a sparrow that is small and complete.

Except for a few laborers, the Hong Kong Mint is almost all skilled workers, all of whom are trained by the Senate itself.Due to the special geographical location here, coupled with the special work of the Mint.Therefore, the selection of workers is very careful. Not only must the skills meet the standards, but also the political rating must be high, and the family background must be clean, with immediate family members living in Lingao.Don't care about nothing.

After Liang Xin arrived in Hong Kong, he immediately started to prepare the machinery and equipment, trained the workers to be familiar with the process, and waited for the coins to start working as soon as the materials arrived.The biggest difficulty in minting coins is mold making. After making qualified molds, there is not much technical difficulty in making coins. It can be said that any machining enterprise can make coins as long as it has a punching machine with a certain tonnage.

It didn't take long for the first batch of coins to be shipped to Hong Kong. This was smelted by Metallurgy Kou for the mint, and it was a 99kg metal bar with a purity of 1%.In addition to silver and copper, there are also small amounts of zinc strips.Zinc is added to improve the wear resistance of the coin

The sent coins are put into a special crucible in proportion to the type of casting, and smelted in a reverberatory furnace.According to common sense, such smelting should use an electric furnace.If you use a crucible to smelt, you must at least use coke as a fuel.Now Liang Xin has neither an electric furnace nor a lack of coke, so he can only use high-quality Hongji anthracite instead.Fortunately, the use of the reverberatory furnace and the blower can also provide sufficient temperature for melting the alloy.

(End of this chapter)